Just eight hours before the planned liftoff, the media, including myself, witnessed the rollback of the service tower to unveil Orion and its Delta IV Heavy booster rocket to the heavens where it soon soar on it first test flight.

Enjoy my photo gallery herein.

The Orion capsule is designed to carry astronauts farther into space than ever before and open a new era in human spaceflight.

Orion is slated to lift off on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket on its inaugural test flight to space on the uncrewed Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission at 7:05 a.m. EST on December 4, 2014, from Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The launch window extends for 2 hours and 39 minutes.

Up close view of Orion inside the mobile service tower pad 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida one day prior to launch. Credit: Ken Kremer – kenkremer.com

The two-orbit, four and a half hour Orion EFT-1 flight around Earth will lift the Orion spacecraft and its attached second stage to an orbital altitude of 3,600 miles, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station (ISS) – and farther than any human spacecraft has journeyed in 40 years.

Watch for Ken’s ongoing Orion coverage and he is onsite at KSC in the days leading up to the historic launch on Dec. 4.